Birth story a bit long

Hi all,
I'm a longtime lurker on this board, but I've never really posted much. I thought I'd share the birth story of our baby girl.

I was officially due today, 2/18. Two weeks ago on Friday 2/8 I had my regular midwife appointment. At that appointment the MW mentioned that my blood pressure was a little high, and that a protein urine test from earlier in the week was also a little high. So I took the 24 hour preeclampsia pee bucket test over the weekend and went back to the MW on Monday. At that appointment my BP was normal, and the MW said they'd have the protein results by the end of the day or early on Tuesday. Because I'd had absolutely no other symptoms, she was fairly confident everything would be fine.

Tuesday morning 2/12 I get a call from the MW. Protein levels are 3.5x the acceptable amount and she's very concerned about eclampsia and possible seizures, despite all other factors being normal. So she says we need to induce today a full week early. I called my husband and after a slight meltdown on my part house a wreck, no freezer meals ready, laundry drying on a rack in the nursery essentially totally unprepared to go to the hospital we head in 3 hours later.

I was admitted around noon and at about 2pm they started the pitocin and a magnesium sulfate drip to combat possible seizures. Contractions started around 1:30am on Wed 2/13. By 2:30a I had an epidural, but they then diagnosed me with magnesium sulfate toxicity the drip was too high and making me so tired I was almost able to sleep though contractions and it was making me very incoherent and a little loopy.

By 9am I felt the need to push, and pushed for an hour and a half on my own. The magnesium in my system was making me so sleepy that my husband said I actually requested that we stop pushing so I could take a nap for bit. Then back labor started and the doctor saw that Baby was starting to tire as well and had turned partially sunnyside up. We decided to use forcepts to help her crown after he got her turned properly because I was barely awake enough to push through contractions. Six more pushes later and our little Abigail Helen was born at 10:41am on 2 /13. She passed all her initial tests with flying colors despite the somewhat traumatic delivery.

I ended up with a 2nd degree tear and episiotomy, plus bilateral tears on the inside of the labia. Uncomfortable, to say the least. I had to stay on a reduced magnesium drip for 24 hours, and after three days of massive swelling in which I had a catheter removed and replaced three times we were discharged on Saturday to go home.

So far we're all doing well. Abby is a bit jaundiced but the pedi says a round or two under the billi lights will help that. We're so in love with our little girl and very happy to finally have her here. Even though I didn't necessarily get the "normal" birth route I had hoped for, it was worth it to keep both her and me safe.

Good luck to all the mamas with inside babies, and congrats to all those with outside ones!

Micah